World Kid Lit Challenge Day Two

On to day two and today’s book is Banana Skin Chaos by Lilli l’Arronge, translated from German by Daniela Bernardelle (Bloomsbury).

Dominic: It is kind of silly because at the beginning, one man is slipping on a banana skin and it comes to the last page and there’s absolute chaos. There is something different to look at on every page. It is all set in the same background but it is very interesting. It doesn’t have many words. There is lots to look at in the pictures.

Emma: This is one of my favourites. It’s so funny when the snake eats the pig and the pot of paint lands on the man’s head. There’s also a pig riding someone else’s bicycle. It makes me want to read it over and over.

The moment this book arrived, Dominic and Emma pounced on it. With a bright yellow cover (Emma’s favourite colour!), it’s really appealing. It takes the notion of a boy dropping a banana skin on the floor and the possible implications this could have. His female companion (is it his sister, mother, friend?) says, “just think what could happen”. Over the following pages, a whole series of unfortunate yet hilarious events take place involving paint pots, escaped pigs, zoo animals, flying cakes and even Superman and King Kong. Dominic and Emma delighted in seeing what had happened and changed from one picture to the next, the lens widening on each page, involving more and more people.

There was lots to discuss on every page and Emma, in particular, enjoyed showing her favourite bits to any visitors. We also enjoyed conversations about what might happen next, using their imagination to think about what else could happen. It’s one of those books we can look at time and again and notice something that we hadn’t seen before.